The race for mayor in Harrisburg seems to be changing every day.
Two independent candidates will go before a Dauphin County judge on Monday to face election petitions that may knock them out of the race.
FOX43 spoke with both candidates earlier and oddly enough this twist of fate has these two men on the same team.
Rewind back to last Tuesday when Dan Miller told FOX43 he wasn’t going to run.
Well between then and now he’s thrown his hat back in the race because he believes Nevin Mindlin and Nate Curtis will be forced out after Monday morning.
Independent candidate Nevin Mindlin says he found out Thursday night a petition was filed against him.
He says, “someone’s out to get him,” and he knows who it is.
“I have to believe this goes back to Eric Papenfuse’s political cronies one way or another,” says Mindlin.
Eric Papenfuse is running on the democratic ticket which he won back in May.
The petition filed claims that Mindlin didn’t name someone else to take his spot just in case he had to drop out.
“If I was unable to do it…there is no replacement for me. I’m an American citizen trying to run for office…this is simple and they’re saying no I’m sorry but you can’t do that,” says Mindlin.
The petition was filed by Donald Coles.
We went to his Brookwood Street home in Harrisburg to ask him why, but he didn’t answer the door.
Mindlin will face the same fight as his opponent, Nate Curtis.
Curtis tells FOX43, “This is nothing but the Papenfuse campaign and his supporters grasping at straws to make sure he walks into office on election day.”
All this is what prompted Dan Miller to change his mind about running for Harrisburg mayor.
“My understanding is these are fatal errors and they’re probably going to be knocked off the ballot and so there’d be no competition, there’d be a race with just one candidate,” says Miller.
Miller originally stated that he didn’t have the money to run.
But that seemed to be the least of worries at a Friday press conference.
He doesn’t want Papenfuse to run uncontested because of petitions he believes were filed by his supporters.
“This is definitely the Papenfuse campaign, you ask Nate, you ask Nevin this.. it’s him,” says Miller.
Mindlin and Curtis had nothing negative to say about Miller being back in it.
Mindlin wants Miller’s voice to be part of this race.
“Dan really knows that Eric Papenfuse is not good for this community. There are many of us who believe that,” says Mindlin.
FOX43 put calls out to Eric Papenfuse and his campaign, those weren’t returned.
But in the past, Papenfuse has said these petitions filed against Mindlin and Curtis have nothing to do with him.